Midseason Report Cards

Look at how good Raheem Mostert has been according to that graph. Impressive!

Don't you think this team being better is largely related to coaching though? For example nobody thought this defense looked very talented coming into the year but expectation was it would improve due to Flores and that seems to be the case. That side of the ball definitely looks a lot better so far but how much talent has really been added since last year? I don't even think Murphy has looked very good but he might be the best addition compared to last season (and we lost Smith). So while I agree the last 2 seasons overall this team has looked better I don't think it is being driven largely by talent being added from the GM and is largely coaching related. Let's take a look and focus on just that aspect of what Kwesi has actually added in terms of above average players.

Hockenson
Addison
Pace
Hicks
Phillips
Murphy

To me these are the biggest impact additions we have from Kwesi on the roster and after that you are talking about below average players/depth. Murphy is the best player of our weakest area on the team and has been abused a bit this season (chargers game as obvious example), I think after this point we are in the meh category. So while we are relying more on talent Kwesi brought in overall I am not sure that's really the reason for our success. The bottom of the roster did improve so I will give him that, Evans and Blackmon look better than Dantzler type of thing. However CB is still the weakest area on our team arguably despite it being all Kwesi's guys. Smith, Metellus, Bynum are really leading this secondary and all of them were here prior to Kwesi. Kind of like how Ingram is Kwesi's pick and playing but also the weakest part of our oline and not really a reason for the turn around there (while Darrisaw/Bradbury/Oniell are better and were here prior).

On top of that we have more than 50 million in dead cap next season (unless we hand out more $ and re-sign Hunter/Cousins/Davenport) all related to financial moves by Kwesi so I am not sure he has gotten us out of a nasty cap situation quite yet either (and in some ways has added to it via void years). After two offseasons we have added two higher impact guys, 3 solid vets and may have a gem in Pace. Outside of that I don't think there is a ton of impact by Kwesi additions. Given we did spend some cap (Murphy, Oliver, Ham, Mattison, Davenport, Lowry this year) and looking at two full drafts as well I think that's a bit disappointing overall (although there is still time for young guys to grow at least). He has gotten the roster better towards the bottom which was certainly needed and is helping, they aren't bad even if maybe not living up to the $ or just kind of meh impact. However in the full picture the additions he has made haven't really been impressive and this team is still relying heavily on talent acquired before he got here.

That to me is potentially the reason for differences of opinions. I think we can all agree we are getting more and more of Kwesi's guys making an impact for this team and the team has been better the last two seasons. I just don't think that necessarily means Kwesi's guys are the reason we are winning games. JJ, Hunter, Cousins, Darrisaw, Oniel, Smith, Bynum, Metellus, Bradbury are making more impact still. In terms of actual above average talent he has added to this roster given two full offseasons I think he needs to do a better job if we want to be truly competitive. Right now he’s relying on coaching for the improvements while not doing a great job bringing in young talent.